Ko Rangiriri rakau whakangautai te taniwha!

 

The progress of Rangiriri...

 I had a tutu on my tekoteko yesterday using toki, whao and angle grinder.  It was nice to work outside even though chips went flying everywhere.  I think next time I'll put the tarpaulin down to make cleaning up easier.

I enjoyed trying to figure out my cuts.  Something Arama shared with us was to 'enjoy' the process, so I made a conscious effort to not stress about any of the cuts I made and 'rolled' with it.  It worked and after my session I felt good.

 

 

Our haerenga ki Waitangi - 10th Oct 2020

 Our class embarked on a haerenga to Waitangi last Saturday.  It was an awesome day for all of us and was described perfectly by one of my fellow tauira Heketia Ahomiro:

"Today we honoured our ancestors, e tātou mā.  We reaffirmed their deeds as great mana, he mana tuku iho, mana atua, mana tupuna, mana tangata, mana whenua. Kei tua ko te aka matua he mana Māori motuhake e.  How blessed are we?"

I managed to capture snippets of our day and put them together in movie form for us to cherish.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Arama Hamiora Davis in the carving shed based at the Waitangi Treaty grounds.  He gave a demo of carving pākati.  I managed to film some of it:

Tekoteko wero - i haere tonu ahau!

After many attempts using pencil/paper, clay and wood.  I am still trying to get my 'form' right for my Tekoteko. 

I started with my sketches and ideas and once I drew my design onto my maquette and started chunking/cutting it out, I couldn't get my head around how to make the cuts so, I turned to clay/uku.  I figured out some of my cuts using clay and tried NOT to add bits back after I had cut out.  It was pretty tricky.  The upoko and face I found particularly tricky.

   

Once the maquette was finished, I wasn't happy with the form.  I think it was the arms that threw me so I decided to play around with the concept of making a maquette without arms.  Out came the clay again.

 

The form looked interesting but the head reminded me of a moa... NOT the look I was going for.  So I cut the head off and made a different style head after looking at other 'pictures' in books and online.

 

The second upoko didn't quite look right either.  So I ditched the idea of doing a 'human' figure because it still didn't look right.

I thought more about the kōrero of Rangiriri and decided that because he was a totara log that swam against the tide, he might look better as a 'log' figure with maybe a contemporary type head.  So back to the sketch book...  I wanted to create something quite contemporary and thought the pīhere should protrude from the chest.  So I had a go at carving what I could see on paper, and in my head.

 

My next task was figuring out the 'eyes'.  I knew I didn't actually want eyeballs (as such) because of the nature of Rangiriri's enchanted nature so it had me stumped a bit.  Probably because my attempt at creating what I wanted was unsuccessful using clay.  Kawiti came to my rescue and reminded me about the 'tuere' which we drew way back in April in one of our zui sessions.

So, I drew on the eyes and Kawiti showed which whao to use to create the right cuts - check cuts are sooo important.  It ready does stop the rakau from ripping or chipping.  I was pretty stoked with the final look.

 

Kawiti rocked into the workshop with a 'surprise'.  When he asked me a few weeks ago about Rangiriri, one of the stories I shared with him was how Rangiriri would transform and cut the chains of the kauri logs waiting to be taken along the Wairoa river out to the Kaipara Harbour.  Kawiti shared with me that he may have a rakau that I may be interested in.  He pulled it out of a stream in Whakapara.  

 

It was perfect.  There were chains embedded in the rakau and it was a twisted form.  Perfect to represent the transformation of Rangiriri.  My intuitive and initial reaction was quickly replaced with apprehension and fear.  Could I achieve this wero?  Would I ruin Kawiti's log?  So with the roller coaster thought process for the rest of the class, Kawiti put me at ease by telling me it could possibly go to waste if I didn't take on the wero.  So I said I'd take it home and think about it.

So in the shed it sat.  It felt right and I sketched some ideas down in both my head and on paper.  I was thankful that I had a toki sharpened by the matua down at Downtown Tools so bit the bullet and started to toki out parts of the upoko.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and am excited.  I was suprised at how nicely the chips came away and the strong aroma of pine in my shed (it reminded me of cutting xmas trees with my Dad).  So, here I am at the first stage of shaping Rangiriri... A massive wero!

 

 

A visit to Jay's Whakairo Shed.

Today was an inspirational day.  I was invited by Jay to visit Otamatea High School to have a look at her whakairo shed.  

I was impressed with the set up and how well resourced the shed was.  It was great to see the quality of the chisels and tools which shows she values the students and expects quality mahi.  I learnt so much from her today.  One of my greatest challenges next year will be getting my head around NCEA assessments and Unit standards but thanks to Jay, I was able to look at some exemplars.

I met two of her students (Year 12 girls) who were a part of the team that worked on a commissioned waharoa for Whangarei Heads Primary School.  It was erected inside the shed for an open viewing session at lunchtime for students and teachers.  It will then be dismantled and taken to Whangarei Heads School next Tuesday and I'm looking forward to heading along to document the event.

I'm looking forward to the ongoing whanaungatanga with Jay and her students and I'm super excited on the new wero next year.

Tekoteko wero

 One of our creative works for our second semester is a tekoteko.  I started a maquette way back in June for a design I had sketched up based on a tekoteko my bro had started.  It was good practice and was just on a block of pine.

This semester we have a block of totara to work on (150x150x600) to create our tekoteko.  I decided to create a new design for this project.  Here's the project brief:

I've decided to create a contemporary tekoteko which will represent 'Rangiriri - he rākau mana.  I've played around with shapes and I had a go at using polystyrene for my first maquette to get my head around the first cuts.  Still not satisfied I have the design right yet, I continue to sketch ideas for the contemporary piece.

When arriving at the workshop today I looked at some of the artworks and took photos to try and give me ideas of different 3D forms.  There's some beautiful pieces in our carving shed and I'm thankful to have access to them, there's nothing quite like walking around pieces rather than looking at them in a book.

Pākati Whakarei

 My new wero is to practise carving whakarei.  Pākati is the first (of many) that I am attempting to improve in.  Ive had a number of lessons from Kawiti and the little videos have been helpful.  There's nothing quite like getting in there a tackling the task at hand.

Last week I started practising.  It's a looooong process but I like the fact that Kawiti is a perfectionist when it comes to pākati so it's great having a tutor that takes the time to try and teach the 'correct' way - he taonga tuku iho from our tūpuna and also a tribute to his own tutor/mentor Eric Korewha.

Here's some photos of my progress:

The thing I'm struggling with is telling those who are trying to share their own knowledge about how to carve pākati that I don't want to do it their way lol.  I'm just too nice.  I appreciate others sharing their knowledge and I sit patiently, watch and listen, but I don't have the heart to say "Well, Kawiti is our tutor and I'm going to do it his way"  Haha!

So this week I've been sharpening my whao and working on pākati.  Here's a comparison I've made of Kawiti's and my pākati.

I need to work on consistency and trying to keep the whakarei centred and sharp.